The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1887-06-09

He-e Erroneous legislative Work.
The Leeislature Of 1887 made . splendid
record for general good work and industrious
attention to business, but 1t IL much to be re-
GREETED that the record was marred by the defeat
of the Geological Survey and Board of Health
billa We might mention some minor matters,
also. in which we think the course of legislation
was not in the right direction, but we refer to
the above especially as conspicuously wrong.
Already the action as to the health bill is re-
proved by events aud condemned to the popular
sense, for with yellow fever rumors abroad, be-
cause OF the few cases at Key West the ahilction
of local panics and shot gun quarantine expe-
dents is visited upon the people in many parts
of the State, painfully demonstrating the neces-
sity for the controlling management and direc-
ton of properly constituted authority, which
would assure the maximum OF protection and
the minimum of Inconvenience. The people feel
the necessity of taking personal responsibility
by individual action in a matter of public con-
Germ which should be effectually managed for
them by State ofi1cials-and not by themselves,
perhaps Intellectually, though much trouble and
expense be involved in their efforts
Survey i. is bad enough for the people to be de-
prived of benefits that would accrue, but the
State is also subjected TO the repreach abroad of
being lamentably behind the age and behind
sister States in the encouragement Of scientific
progress and material development. We are not
disposed to have the reproach rest upon the
State at large without protest, and we put it
where il is deserved and claim that the people
would have been generally pleased if the Survey
had been provided for, and, therefore, that in
this instance the peoples representatives did not
represent the people Such would not have been
the if Legislators had not permitted their
action to be misdrected by outside influences
and by personal and unworthy antagonisms
among themselves-this, as to both the Health
and Geological bills BY outside influences y
we mean nothing in the sense of corruption
OF members, but refer to the efforts-we cannot
say arguments-that prejudiced persons brsugh,
TO bear upon them, creating opposition fol
which those who opposed must find it hard &c
| give q reason, inasmuch as it does seem alto
gether unreasonable that it could exist in the lgh
of cool, unbiased thought.
| 1t is not amss TO mention here the suspicion
| that the outside influence against the Geological
Survey was suggested by those who desired t
secure for their own advantage the control o
mineral resources which they feared the Survey
would make known to all. Is it true that per
sons wished to postpone the Geological Survey
which will certainly be eventually made, tina
they might meanwhile make private research
and "gobble up" lands of mineral value befor
the owners, or the people generally, could learI
their value: The Preliminary Survey which
DR.. Kost donated to the people, gave sufficien
information to justify the conviction that Their
is much wealth to be found under the surface
OF Florida, and to induce active interest in it
discovery